For-Profit Corporations

For-profit corporations must balance their needs with the needs of their customers. Corporations have a duty to make a profit so that their owners and shareholders can enjoy a return on their investment. If a corporation fails to make a profit they will eventually cease to exist as people will not invest in an organization that is not profitable. Corporations that solely focus on profit and neglect the needs of their customers will suffer the same fate as the corporation who does not profit at all. A corporation that completely ignores their customers needs will lose those ignored customers. For-profit companies should seek to strike a balance between the needs of their business and the needs for their customers. It is ultimately a symbiotic

The law does not dictate how much a company can charge for their patented product, but there are a couple of factors that can help keep prices reasonable. The first factor is that consumers will only pay so much for a product. If a company with a unique product charges too much then consumers can refuse to buy it. The other important factor is that patents only last twenty years, other companies can then produce similar products to compete with the original one (Kubasek et al., 2016). This competition will lead to the consumers receiving the product at a lower price point. Patents give an organization the ability to protect their products, but the organization still has a responsibility to offer their consumers a good product at a

Organizations that produce normal products greatest responsibility is to themselves, organization such as Apple and Samsung seek to protect their intellectual property so that they can make a profit on the products they spent resources making (Kubasek et al., 2016). These two organizations fight has gone as high as the Supreme Court, who in turn sent it back down to the lower courts without really resolving anything (Goel, 2016). This all seems rather frivolous when it is compared to patents in the medical industry. These companies are working to make life saving products, a very noble cause. The issue of who should benefit most is perfectly encapsulated by Marathon Pharmaceuticals charging a 6000% increase for a decades old drug which they have brought into the US market; they justify this with the idea that the absurd prices will cover the costs it took to get through the FDA and the high profit will “incentivize drug makers to bring more drugs to the United States” (Herper, 2017). The high prices clearly benefit the company, but they claim that it will lead to greater benefits for the consumer. This is all possible thanks to the Orphan Drug Act which is meant to encourage the development of drugs that treat rare diseases through benefits such as “lower R&D costs (e.g.,